STEM EDX: Disease-Microbe Combination Pamphlet or Presentation

Karla Schallies (Department of Biology)
STEM EDX Fellow AY 20-21

Overview

Medical Microbiology (Biol 209) is a lecture and laboratory course that is primarily taken by Nursing and Health Science majors. At the end of the semester, students create a pamphlet and a presentation about a disease-microbe combination of their choosing. For the pamphlet, students focus on the disease, and on the presentation, students diagnose a patient during a mock patient appointment. For the mock patient appointment, the student takes the role of the health professional (nurse, doctor, PA, etc.) and another person/student becomes the patient. The student writes a script and presents the mock patient appointment to the whole class or submit a pre-recorded presentation. At the end of each mock patient appointment, the patient would receive the printed pamphlet with the information about the disease.

This is designed as an opportunity for students to synthesize all they have learned about microbes and disease over the semester and connect it concretely to their future careers in health care. The instructor will provide the rubric and students decide on their microbe / disease combination, research about the disease and the microorganism that causes the disease on their own, choose the tests to be performed, plan a treatment for the patient, decide on the format and delivery method for the presentation, and decide on the format for the pamphlet. All of these are transferable skills for other classes, their clinicals, and their future careers.

At the end, students proudly present their work since it shows the student’s knowledge, their uniqueness, and their creativity. Students would have practiced using the knowledge learned in my class by creating and presenting a memorable project in a safe environment where everyone is learning how to use microbiology terms and giving them the self-confidence, they will need when they have actual patients.

Description of the Activity

This presentation/project has two parts:

  1. A presentation of about 5 minutes. This presentation is a mock patient’s appointment.
  2. A pamphlet. The pamphlet is created with the idea of giving it to the patient at the end of the appointment.

General information

  • Each student in the class will choose a unique combination of microbe / disease
  • The same microbe / disease combination is used on both parts of the project
  • Each presentation includes a patient and the student in any health-related professional role. For example, the student can be a nurse, a physician assistant, a doctor, etc.
  • The presentation:
    • It should last about 5 min
    • It can be presented during the lab session or pre-recorded
    • A script is recommended for the presentation to help students practice their presentation with other classmates
    • If the student is presenting live during the lab session, the student you will present to the classmates and lab instructor during our synchronous meetings
    • If the student is creating a pre-recoded presentation, then the student can either create a video or a PowerPoint presentation with voice over.
      • If video: (a) will need to record themselves completing the mock appointment. The patient can be a person, an animal, or an inanimate object (some students have used stuffed animals and others have used a picture to mimic a virtual appointment), (b) Submit the video or the link to the video in Blackboard.
      • If PowerPoint presentation: (a) Students will need to create slides and record their voice while presenting the information needed, (b) File has to be under 9.9 MB or a link to access it must be provided, (c) SafeAssign score for the file must be less than 30%.
  • The pamphlet:
    • SafeAssign scores for the file must be less than 30%
    • Must be maximum of 2 pages
    • The file must be submitted as a PDF
    • References for the text need to be from .edu, .gov, and .org pages (Wikipedia is not allowed)
    • Pictures can be from any source, but still need to be included in the reference section
    • References need to be in APA or MLA format

The complete handout contains the assignment and detailed rubrics for both the Pamphlet and the Presentation.

Sample Student Work

Pamphlets

Presentations